Argos is an open and collaborative platform developed by OpenAIRE to facilitate Research Data Management (RDM) activities concerning the implementation of Data Management Plans. It uses OpenAIRE guides created by the RDM Task Force to familiarize users with basic RDM concepts and guide them throughout the process of writing DMPs. It also utilises the OpenAIRE pool of services and inferred sources to make DMPs more dynamic in use and easier to be completed and published. Argos is based on the OpenDMP open source software and is available through the OpenAIRE Service catalogue and the EOSC.

Argos is a flexible tool, designed to accommodate all research performing and research funding organisations’ policies and Research Data Management (RDM) needs. It already supports templates for different authorities. These templates are created by Admin users in Argos. In addition, we currently work to provide non-administrative users with the capability to modify templates according to their own needs.

Argos is easy to use and navigate around. It familiarises users with the DMP process and provides guidance on basic RDM concepts so that users find useful resources to learn from without having to leave the Argos environment. Users can invite their colleagues and collaboratively work on completing a DMP. Moreover, Argos is an integral part of the OpeAIRE ecosystem and the Research Graph. Argos integrates other services of the ecosystem to enable contextualisation of information, which is especially useful when data are re-used, for example to understand how/ if they can be repurposed.

Argos is designed as a tool for inclusive use by researchers, students, funders, research communities and institutions. It can be used in the context of research projects’ conduct to comply with funders’ RDM requirements, as a tool in support of literacy programmes in academia or can be independently deployed to meet given stakeholder demands. Also, it is available in native languages, thanks to the help of OpenAIRE NOADs, which strengthens common understanding of all researchers involved in the DMP writing process. By using Argos, researchers and students are able to create their DMPs in collaboration with other colleagues, learn basic RDM concepts throughout the process and publish DMPs as outputs in an open and FAIR manner, among other things by assigning DOIs and licenses and by maintaining DMPs as living documents through versioning. At the same time, Argos can be configured and deployed by funders, institutions and research communities. They can plug in their own services and/ or make use of OpenAIRE underlying services that Argos is built with ad-hoc.

Argos consists of two main functionalities: DMPs and Datasets. Argos can be used for:

A. Viewing/ consulting publicly released DMPs and Datasets or Projects corresponding to DMPs

Argos offers options for publishing DMPs in two modes, private or public. To view public DMPs and Datasets, there is no need for login to the platform.

B. Writing and publishing a DMP

Argos helps researchers comply with mandates that may be attached to their grant proposal/ project funding. They can therefore choose from the most suitable to their needs template from the Datasets collection and proceed with answering the corresponding questions. Once finalized, researchers can assign a DOI to their DMP, publish and eventually cite it.

C. Practicing on writing DMPs and Dataset Descriptions

Argos may be used for educational purposes. The process of Data Management Planning reflects the data management lifecycle, hence the tool can be used in response to global RDM training demands. Examples may refer to embedding DMPs and DMP tools in specific curricula or be embedded in library instructions’ sessions to familiarize researchers and students the processes of RDM and DMP.

Of course. If you want to compare DMPs or analyse DMP data, then we advise you to export the records in .xml. This schema is the most complete as it includes all information held in a DMP: information provided by the Admin when structuring the template and input provided by researchers when completing their DMPs.

You can log in Argos by selecting one of the providers from the Login page. Argos does not require Sign Up.

If you are interested in becoming an administrator in Argos and benefit from extra features relevant to creating tailored templates, please email argos@openaire.eu .

There is no need to switch from your administrator account to use Argos. The only difference between regular users and administrators profiles in Argos is an extra set of tools at the bottom of the main tool bar that is positioned on the left handside.

Argos does not have Sign Up. To change email, please see “Switch between accounts”. Alternatevily, you can add more email addresses to your user account by selecting the “Add alternative email” from your profile.

You can switch between email accounts by loging in with different providers from the Login page. The change depends on whether you have used different email addresses to sign up with those providers. On the occassion that only one email address is used for all providers offered by Argos, then no change is expected. You can always add new email accounts in your profile from the “Add alternative email” in your profile page.

If you want to delete your Argos profile, please email argos@openaire.eu .

You can access your profile page and make desired edits from clicking on the avatar at the very top of the toolbar located on the right handside.

Please try using a different provider from the Login page and contact us at: argos@openaire.eu .

If you are reading this right now, you probably know the answer already! One way to access Argos is through the OpenAIRE Service catalogue. Another way is through the EOSC Catalogue. But, you can always find Argos at argos.openaire.eu . To access Argos software, please visit https://code-repo.d4science.org/MaDgiK-CITE/argos/src/branch/master .

Author of the DMP is everyone contributing to writing the DMP. Both Argos owners and Argos members are DMP authors. Researchers, however, are not DMP authors.

Argos DMP owner is the person initiating the DMP. People who are invited to join the DMP process are members who contribute to writing the DMP. DMP owners have extra editing rights and they are the ones to finalize the DMP process. Members can view and edit DMPs and Datasets, but can not perform further actions for its validation or finalization.

Researchers in Argos are project contributors and usually those who own or have managed data described in respective DMPs.

Of course! This depends on whether the researcher has also been involved in the DMP writing process.

Not everyone can become an Admin user in Argos. This happens upon request at argos@openaire.eu. Admin users are able to create their own tailored templates from a specialised editor, configure their own APIs and integrate services with Argos in collaboration with and support of the Argos development team. Fees may apply according to the type of requests.

DMPs that are created as part of the project proposal are not included in Argos. Only accepted project proposals are listed in the platform. If you can’t find your project in the list (drop-down menu), please use the “Insert manually” functionality.

If you can’t find your grant in the list (drop-down menu), please use the “Insert manually” functionality.

You have to be an Admin user to design your own template in Argos. To learn more about Admin users, check “What does an Admin user do?”.

Yes, you can, provided that you are an Admin user. To learn more about Admin users, check “What does an Admin user do?”.

They all perform the same action, but the difference lies in where you are directed after you have saved your DMP or Dataset.

• When choosing Save, information that you have added in the editor is kept and you can continue adding more from the same page you were working on.
• When choosing Save & Close, information that you have added is kept, but the editor’s window closes and you are redirected to your dashboard.
• [only for datasets] When choosing Save & Add New, information that you have added is kept, and you are redirected to another editor to start a new dataset.

Yes, you can, as long as you haven’t assigned a DOI to your DMP. You just select “Undo Finalization”.

You may use the “Invite” button to share DMPs with your colleagues and start working on them together.

Of course. Argos supports collaborations across diverse teams. There are two most frequent ways that can address this question:

A. Everyone works on the same DMP, but on different dataset descriptions

In this case, each organisation makes its own dataset description(s) in a single DMP. That means that the manager (i.e. person responsible for the DMP activity) creates a DMP in ARGOS and shares it with everyone. If the DMP is shared with co-ownership rights, then the people will be able to edit it and add their dataset descriptions at any time during the project. If there is the need to control editing rights of people writing the DMPs, then the manager can create the dataset description(s) and share these each time with the team members that are responsible for adding input for the specified datasets.

B. Everyone works on their own DMP and content is later merged into one single DMP

In this case, each organisation might work on their own DMP for the same project. At one point, you need to decide which DMP is going to be the core for the work you perform, share co-ownership between managers of all DMPs so they can copy all dataset descriptions of their DMPs in this single DMP document.

DMPs and Datasets can be cloned and used in different research contexts. Existing DMPs presenting similarities with new ones, can be cloned, changed name and then edited according to the new project data requirements. Existing Datasets can be cloned and used in new DMPs that are reusing data described in their context.

Versioning in Argos is both an internal and an external process. That means that versioning happens both in the Argos environment when editing the DMP, and outside of Argos when a DMP output is published in Zenodo. At every stage of the DMP lifecycle, users have the option of keeping versions of the DMPs they are editing. In Argos, users can create new versions of their DMPs by selecting the “Start New Version” option to keep track of the evolution of their DMP throughout the writing process. When published, versioning is associated with a DOI. Published DMPs are automatically versioned every time a newer version of the same output is uploaded in Zenodo.

A DMP in Argos consists of vital information about the research project on behalf of which the DMP is created and of more in depth information about the management, handling and curation of datasets collected, produced or reused during the research lifetime. A DMP in Argos accommodates documentation of more than one datasets. That way datasets are provided with the flexibility to be described separately, following different templates per type of dataset or research community concerned each time, also possible to be copied and used in multiple DMPs. Datasets are then bundled up in a DMP and can be shared more broadly. Special attention is given to the handling of data that are being re-used via OpenAIRE APIs.

This depends on the reason why you are creating a DMP in the first place. If it is for compliance matters with funders, institutions or research communities RDM policies, then you may select the dataset template of that particular stakeholder. If you are creating a DMP for training purposes, you may select and work on any template from the Argos collection.

Currently, it is not possible for all Argos users to create dataset templates of their own, so they have to work on predefined templates. Additional rights for editing Dataset templates according to tailored needs have Admin users. This is expected to change in the near future. To learn more about Admin users, check “What does an Admin user do?”.

Yes, it is possible in Argos to create short versions of templates that can be used for grant proposals, such as for Horizon Europe. If you are interested in working with us to create this short version of any ARGOS template, please contact us: argos@openaire.eu.

Yes, you can. In the current version, this is possible for Admin users who have their own deployment on-premises or cloud. Please note that this subject to change in the near future as we are working on a feature that will allow all users to customise (remove/add/extend) specific questions on the template they are working on.

A Dataset in Argos is an editor with set up questions that support the creation of descriptions of how data are / have been handled, managed and curated throughout the research data lifecycle. The editor holds a collection of Dataset templates each one with different sets of predefined questions as per funders, institutions, research communities RDM policy requirements. Researchers and students can choose the template that corresponds to their RDM needs in order to get funding or get their degree, respectively. A DMP in Argos may consist of one or more datasets.

You don’t necessarily need to have many Datasets in a DMP. However, you might be producing a plethora of data during your research that are diverse in type and/ or scope of collection/ re-use, thus presenting diverse management needs. Argos gives you the flexibility to describe all data produced and/ or re-used in your research separately. That way it is easy to perform the mapping of information provided in a DMP to the respective data types or data collections they correspond to. Equally, reuse of particular datasets in different DMPs is easier. For the latter, please check “How do I create an identical DMP or Dataset as a copy?”.

This is something that has to be tackled conceptually, from the author of the DMP. If those "products" have their own lifetime and rules (IPR, Access rights, etc), they should be described as different datasets. Alternative formats should not be treated as different datasets, unless they have other differences due to the format, too. But, for instance, if you have datasets in CSV and JSON formats and under the same terms, they could be seen as one dataset description in the DMP.

Argos offers a search to Zenodo for prefilling the DMP you are working with dataset metadata. This search has been developed according to the rules set by Zenodo and therefore has the same behaviour as when you are using the search bar on the Zenodo interface. However, we understand the need to be able to find records with their PID, hence we introduced some changes and now support searching DOIs from the Argos interface.

Of course! You can choose to manually describe your dataset, e.g. for a dataset you are planning to produce, instead of pre-filling the template with available metadata from a dataset that has already been shared and preserved in a repository.

Public DMPs and Public Datasets are collections of openly available Argos outputs. That means that DMP owners and members are making their DMP and/or Dataset outputs available to all Argos and non-Argos users who might want to consult or re-use them under the framework provided by the assigned DMP license. Please also check “Is all the information I create visible by default?”.

No, it is not. You can choose how your DMP is displayed in Argos from the “Visibility” option. Choosing Public will immediately locate your DMP in the “Public DMPs” collection and make it available to all Argos and non-Argos users. Choosing Private will keep the DMP visible only to you and to the people invited to edit the DMP in collaboration with you. Private DMPs are not publicly displayed to other users.

DMP export contains all vital information for a DMP, including funding and dataset details, while dataset export is a subset of the DMP export containing information only about a dataset described in the DMP. Both DMP and Dataset exports are available in .pdf, .docx, .xml. In addition, DMP export is available in the RDA .json format to increase interoperability of ARGOS exchanged DMPs.

No, there is no storage limit or fee for either files stored in Argos.

Yes, it is possible. But, to have different repositories attached to the system, you will need your own on-premises or cloud deployment. We are already working on that for DSpace and Dataverse repositories.

Yes, we are aware of that. Argos has no control over the DMPs that you generate and publish and thus can not be held accountable for empty DMPs. Please remember that, as on all other occasions where you publish content, you should do so responsinbly. If you have any questions regarding publishing DMPs, don’t hesitate to contact us at argos@openaire.eu.

Both options are possible according to how you have deposited the DMP in the first place. If you have deposited your DMP with a token (i.e. from the ARGOS account on Zenodo), then you won’t have editing rights on the Zenodo record, but you will still be able to make changes on ARGOS by starting and depositing a new version of the published DMP. However, if you have deposited your DMP using your own account on Zenodo (i.e. login to Zenodo with your own credentials), then you are able to also make minor changes, e.g. on the title of the DMP, directly from the Zenodo interface.

You might be experiencing this problem because there are incomplete mandatory fields in your DMP. Please check for those fields, fill in with appropriate information and try again. Should the problem persists, please contact argos@openaire.eu .

DMPs can be shared with many colleagues in support of collaborative writing, but DMPs should be worked by one person at a time. Argos will inform you if another colleague has the DMP you are trying to edit open, so that your team avoids information loss.

You need to have a Zenodo login to perform a deposit. Please sign up in Zenodo or use the token option to publish your DMPs and get a DOI.

Yes, it is. The OpenDMP software that Argos has deployed upon is open source code available under Apache 2.0 license. You may find more information about the software here.

Of course! Please feel free to suggest new features and to actively contribute to Argos development via pull requests in Gitea.

Argos takes all necessary steps in handling and protecting personal and sensitive information. Please check the Argos Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Please find all information about Argos Terms of Service and Privacy, here. Additionally, you may find Argos Cookies policy, here.

Unless there are any contractual or institutional agreements stating ownership of outputs produced in the context of a project/ collaboration, owners of Argos outputs are DMP contributors, i.e. DMP owners and DMP members, who have been involved with writing the DMP.

Please find all information about Argos Terms of Service and Privacy, here. Additionally, you may find Argos Cookies policy, here.